


Schroedinger's victory

by halfeatenmoon



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, trapped together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 06:16:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20304823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfeatenmoon/pseuds/halfeatenmoon
Summary: It's the battle that will end the war, and Rey and Phasma are trapped in a collapsed building together. Even when they hear the bombing stop, they won't know who won.





	Schroedinger's victory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkyRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyRose/gifts).

Rey thought she knew how the war would end for her. The final battle would see her facing down Kylo Ren, on a Star Destroyer, or on a Resistance ship that Kylo had boarded. They would strike at each other with their lightsabers until one of them was changed or dead. That's how it always happened in the stories, ones she heard from travelers on Jakku and the tales Resistance told each other at night. Instead, she found herself planetside in a crumbling building, blocking blaster shots from Captain Phasma as an aerial battle raged overhead.

Rey expected her final battle to at least have a clear victor, but even that didn't come true. Before she could disarm Phasma, or Phasma take her out, a bombing run from an unknown fighter upended the floor beneath their feet, bringing the whole building down on top of them.

When the dust settled, Rey could pull her lightsaber to herself in the rubble, but she couldn't do much else. The first chunk of concrete that she pulled away with the Force brought several others tumbling down with it. She could still hear Phasma over the din of the fighters, though, a shout of alarm when the rubble had shifted. So she made her way painstakingly, carefully through the ruins until she found the small space where Phasma was propped up on one elbow.

The first thing Rey noticed was that she'd taken off her helmet, and for once, Rey was finally seeing her face - her short, pale hair falling by her cheeks, and the shockingly bright eyes glaring at her. Rey had thought many things of Phasma, but she'd never thought about what her face looked like. She never thought Phasma would be beautiful.

"So I suppose you win," Phasma said, and it was only then that Rey noticed that one of her legs had been crushed in the fall.

"Oh no, let me help you..."

"Don't be an idiot," Phasma snarled.

"Don't _you_ be an idiot. I can help."

"Yes, but you could also bring what's left of this mess down on top of us." Phasma jerked her chin upwards, at the precariously balanced hunks of building resting on the piece that had trapped her legs. "It's bad enough that the idiots dropping bombs out there could knock it all down on us again without you trying to help them along."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Rey said.

Phasma shot her a look of disgust.

"What?"

"What do you think you're doing, apologising to me? You won. Don't insult me with pity."

"It's not... Fine. Yes. I win. A lot of good that it does us." She stared up at the rubble above them again, fear prickling the back of her neck. "Wouldn't it be a shame if we both died here, like this, after everything that happened?"

Phasma sneered. "I don't fear death. I've faced death intimately, again and again. So many times I've barely escaped with my life. There's nothing left for me to fear."

"Oh."

"This is _nothing_ that I have not faced before," Phasma said, gathering steam. "Your friend the traitor left me for dead on Starkiller, and I survived. He broke my helmet and kicked me into the burning wreck of the _Supremacy_, and still I survived. And now your people have dropped a building on me, I have no doubt that even if I do not survive, I will not face death with fear."

"It could have been your people."

"What?"

"I'm just saying, it could have been _your_ people who dropped a building on us. They're both shooting up there."

"Irrelevant." Phasma's piercing eyes felt like they were boring right through Rey's. It was almost as hard to look away as if she were using the Force to compel her. "Do _you_ fear death, when you call yourself _Jedi_?"

"Of course," Rey said, quietly. "I wouldn't care enough to fight unless I had something to live for."

Rey wasn't used to thinking of Phasma as, well, having feelings. Certainly not used to the idea that Phasma might have facial expressions. She wasn't prepared for all the feelings that gripped her own heart when she saw Phasma's sadness.

"Do you want to kiss?" she blurted out.

Phasma stared at her like she'd suddenly morphed into a Hutt. "_What?_"

"I don't know!" Rey threw her hands up. "We're stuck hear and it's scary and we don't know who's going to win or whether they'll ever find us, and I want to do _something_. Don't you?"

"I don't care," Phasma growled. "I don't care. Whatever comes will come. I can't fight any more. Whatever I do in these last moments doesn't matter."

"Then why not spend them doing something that feels good?"

Rey didn't think it would get anywhere. She just had to do something, say something, anything but sit there, trapped with her broken enemy, and wait to see whether the silence that came for them was ceasefire or death. She may as well ask, while she was suddenly, confusingly confronted with Phasma's piercing eyes and her shock of hair and the fierce beauty of her determination. But the silence didn't come, not yet, and as long as the bombings went on, Rey was going to be on edge. When a particularly loud blast rocked the ground under their feet and Rey cried out, Phasma swore, grabbed a handful of Rey's hair and pulled her in to a deep, fierce kiss.


End file.
